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I'm curious about why Larry thinks the Ballistic Tips are a poor choice, I have used them with great success for many years on whitetails and pronghorns in both 130 grain and 140 grain. Bob

The original ballistic tip bullets were somewhat light in construction, and many times would explode on contact. This usually caused a ghastly wound and on occasion, a lost animal. I was shooting 140 gr. Ballistic Tips out of a Ruger International 7 x 57 while hunting Blackbuck antelope in Texas some years ago. I had a 187 yard facing shot at a nice buck, and shot him in the brisket. The bullet exploded in a red spray. We did recover the buck, and found that one shard of the bullet jacket had somehow severed the aorta. IMHO, that was bad bullet performance and pure luck.

Nosler changed the construction if the Ballistic Tips a few years back, and it seems that the bullets continue to evolve. Not too long ago, Nosler offered a "Solid Base" bullet, which was well received by shooters, until it inexplicably disappeared from the market. I have some .25 caliber current production 115 gr. BT bullets, and the copy on the box reads "Solid Base Ballistic Tip Bullets". I have had no problem with these on game. Same story with the 150 gr. BT out of a 15" Encore in 30/06.

I have had very good with RL-25 in my 25/06, and it might be worth a try in the .270.

I saw the same thing from BT's in my 270 years ago. I was shooting the 140's and lost a buck I thought should have been a chip shot. The next thing I shot with the same bullets was a coyote, the bullet didn't exit on a broadside 150yd shot. I haven't used them on big game since the accubond came out, but do use them for varmint/practice loads. Many of the accubond and ballistic tips in the same caliber/weight share the same BC and shoot the same. I've shot quite a few coyotes with the 270 130gr and 7mm 140gr ballistic tip at some tough angles and the newer ones seem much tougher. They would probably be a fine deer bullet, but I'm sticking with the accubond. If it isn't broke don't fix it.

Just a side note, the 140gr 270 isn't a place where the ballistic tip and accubond have the same ballistic coefficient. Nosler used a heavier jacket on the accubond which resulted in a longer, higher BC bullet at the same weight.

Wow, I never realized the BT had caused so much grief ! The only one I had a problem with was the 200 grain .338. My buddy borrowed my .338/06 to deer hunt with and shot a medium sized whitetail buck at about 170 yards. The hit was just inside the shoulder on severely quartering shot and the core was recovered under the hide on the opposite ham, the jacket stayed inside the rib cage. I called Nosler and complained. Other than that I have killed probably 15 deer and a pronghorn with the .270 bullets and had no problems. About 10 years ago I switched to the 150 grain Partition for my .270 deer hunting load, I still shoot a lot of ballistic tips in other calibers, just got some 125 grain .30 caliber BT's in the mail yesterday for my .30/30AI pistol

I checked this part of the Forum (Guns, Muzzleloaders & Ammo) amd found the post I did earlier this year on Ballistic Tips in my 25-06 and .257 Wby. I have a picture posted almost at the end of the thread of a doe antelope with a shoulder that was destroyed. I am going to checkout the box and see what the descriprion says. I normally use Sierra .117 gr BTs in my .25s and thats what I will keep using for deer & antelope.

Colorado Cowboy
Cowboy Action Shooter; Endowment Life Member-NRA
The Original Rocket Scientist-Retired
"My Father always considered a walk in the mountains as the equivalent of church going."
Aldous Huxley

Those 117gr Sierra gamekings are a great bullet. I load 110gr accubonds for a neighbor's 257 Weatherby. He had great luck with the Sierras in his 25-06 but we didn't know if they were quite tough enough for the Weatherby so we went accubond when developing loads. Sounds like we would have been fine staying with the Sierra from your results. The accubonds are working great though, his load chronographs at 3450fps from his long barrel and is staying under 3/4". The performance on deer at various ranges has been exactly what I've come to expect from and accubond, small entrance, moderate exit, and internal destruction. Haven't seen a shoulder hit yet only lung shots.

Still reading everyone's posts as I haven't checked this for week. Thanks everyone. I have some H4831, IMR4831, Reloder-22 and IMR4350, all ready to test with the .270. I had read the same things about earlier designed Ballistic tips being far to frangible but was reassured but friends using them now they are fine. I also wanted to use them as I thought they had the same B.C. as the Accubonds of the same weight...

Still reading everyone's posts as I haven't checked this for week. Thanks everyone. I have some H4831, IMR4831, Reloder-22 and IMR4350, all ready to test with the .270. I had read the same things about earlier designed Ballistic tips being far to frangible but was reassured but friends using them now they are fine. I also wanted to use them as I thought they had the same B.C. as the Accubonds of the same weight...

Unless Nosler changed something or my memory is off I think the BT has a .456 BC and the AB has a .496 BC due to the thicker jacket making the bullet longer. I don't have my book right here to check it but I think that is still accurate.